The First Circuit ruled Wednesday that a former AT&T employee in Puerto Rico who claims she was illegally demoted and fired because of her age must arbitrate her claims since she failed to complete the procedure laid out by the company to opt out of its arbitration program.

Delaware’s Supreme Court on Thursday vacated a Chancery Court order for a potential multibillion-dollar sale of William I. Koch’s Oxbow Carbon LLC, rejecting the lower court's finding that the forced sale was a justifiable fix for a gap in contract provisions for investors seeking to cash out.

The EEOC's recently announced partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice will allow for quicker action on harassment allegations against state and local government employers, putting those public employers more squarely in the EEOC's crosshairs and signaling to private businesses that harassment will remain a top enforcement priority, experts say.

Law360’s latest roundup of notable patent developments outside the U.S. includes a stop in Australia, where a court has given new hope to software patent applicants, and China, which is considering a legislative proposal that could lead to larger damages awards.

The 43-page complaint the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed Tuesday detailing an alleged scheme to illegally access its electronic filing system for profit underscores the agency's commitment to cybersecurity while lending some context to its relatively forgiving approach, attorneys say.

A former Morgan Stanley vice president says she was “ruthlessly” fired just weeks after returning from maternity leave, claiming in a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge Wednesday that the incident is illustrative of a larger issue of pregnancy-based discrimination at the Wall Street behemoth.

California's prevailing wage law could be expanded or narrowed, depending on how the state's highest court may rule on a question about the payment of workers who transport machinery to and from public construction projects, the Ninth Circuit said Tuesday.

Panasonic Avionics Corp. has tapped Kimberly Chainey as general counsel after a turbulent, five-year-long government investigation and settlement over alleged corrupt practices relating to foreign government-owned airlines, the in-flight entertainment and communications company announced Tuesday.

Big isn't necessarily bad, William Barr told lawmakers Tuesday in one of several areas where the attorney general nominee largely aligned with the existing views of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, absent a Time Warner-sized hole.

Amazon.com Inc. further urged a California federal court Wednesday to let it escape a suit accusing it of illegally blocking a proposed nationwide class of older workers from seeing Facebook job ads, arguing both that the suit's claims fall short and that the court doesn't have jurisdiction to hear them.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Wednesday introduced a national data privacy bill that would give Congress, not the Federal Trade Commission, the ability to write federal privacy rules — and which would override stringent state regulations.

A California federal judge awarded $77 million to a class of flight attendants Wednesday after earlier finding that Virgin America Inc. failed to pay for hours worked and shorted their overtime pay, reducing the workers' requested payout by $8 million.

Congressional Democrats on Wednesday unveiled a plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2024 while providing for subsequent increases tied to national wage growth and phasing out subminimum wages for youth and tipped workers and people with disabilities.

This week's furloughing of staffers at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative comes at a particularly inconvenient time for the small agency, which former officials say is likely to face challenges as it lays the groundwork for new trade talks and looks to resolve a simmering trade battle with China.

U.S. Supreme Court justices grappled with Home Depot's call to close what it views as a loophole in the Class Action Fairness Act's removal protections during oral arguments Tuesday in a case that started out as a debt-collection suit between a bank and a North Carolina man.

A University of California, Berkeley economics professor testified for the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday that Qualcomm's standard-essential patent royalties serve as a competition-killing "naked tax" on its modem chips, comparing the practice to software bundling that got Microsoft in trouble with the feds 20 years ago.

The U.S. Supreme Court's Tuesday ruling that transportation workers, regardless of whether they're employees or independent contractors, are exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act chipped at the shield some employers have long relied on to insulate themselves from legal attacks, experts say.

Expert Analysis

With no clear end in sight to the government shutdown — including the shutdown of a majority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — global companies, strategic investors and their outside counsel must carefully consider the ongoing impact on deals at all stages, say attorneys at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

Starting this year, public companies must adopt the Financial Standards Accounting Board's new lease accounting rules, which eliminate the defined term "capital leases." Lenders and borrowers alike will need to consider taking a new approach to drafting credit agreements, says Brad Boericke of Pepper Hamilton LLP.

Although a deal announced Wednesday could keep open more than half the department stores that retail dinosaur Sears Roebuck and Company had when it filed for bankruptcy protection last October, Sears remains a cautionary tale for the retail industry, say Robert Marticello and Philip Strok of Smiley Wang-Ekvall LLP.

In the third installment of their four-part series, attorneys with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP consider corporate governance best practices including environmental, social and governance reporting, updates to director and officer questionnaires, board diversity and related disclosures, and shareholder proposals.

Much has been written about whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act covers discrimination based on transgender status or gender identity, but how the Americans with Disabilities Act comes into play has largely remained uncharted territory. Until now, says Lindsey Conrad Kennedy of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC.

The Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services entered into only 37 new corporate integrity agreements last year — the lowest number since 2012 — but it was an important year on the policy front, say attorneys with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

Employers generally benefit from drafting agreements that shorten statutes of limitations on employee claims. However, there are several considerations when assessing whether and how to trim the relevant period, say Ann-Elizabeth Ostrager and Courtney Hunter of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

Alternative dispute resolution providers have made great strides toward diversity, but recent statistics show there is still work to be done. There are certain steps ADR providers can take to actively recruit more women and minority candidates to serve as arbitrators and mediators, says James Jenkins of the American Arbitration Association.

Alternative fee agreements can help align law firm and client interests, increase efficiency and eliminate corporate extortion, among other benefits. They are the best thing to happen to the practice of law in decades, says Kelly Eisenlohr-Moul at Dinsmore & Shohl LLP.

In this installment of their four-part series, attorneys at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP offer insights to companies on executive compensation matters for 2019 — including pay ratio and hedging disclosures, say-on-pay votes and changes in pay practices due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

We take your privacy seriously. As detailed in our Privacy Policy we will use your personal information to administer your account and provide the products and services that you have requested from us.